Best baby tip, best thing you bought & most useless thing

[SoYo]

As the thread says! I'm currently 38 weeks pregnant and just wondering what sage advice you lovely mums can give a newby?

So:

1: Best tip for either childbirth, recovery or looking after a newborn
2: Best thing you bought that you wouldn't be without & would definitely buy again
3: something you didn't use/was waste of money/you wouldn't buy again!

Thanks in advance for all words of wisdom!

Oh yes - top tip - keep changing bag packed ready to go at all times so you can grab any opportunity to get out.

Biggest waste of money was aqua pod from mothercare. Lost suction after a few months and kept floating while trying to bath ds. I got a normal bath mat from ikea instead. Much better.

Worst buys: big travel system buggy thing (we thought we were being clever as was cheap - total false economy!)
and the Moses basket which was barely used at all - luckily it was a donation from a friend.
Slings - DS couldn't stand being in them

Best buys: bugaboo bee - is amazing
Another vote for v-shaped feeding pillow - many uses
and also for iPhone / Kindle for feeding

never ever wake a sleeping baby, (ignore any midwife who tells you to wake them) - they will always let you know when they're hungry
and have useful people around you after birth who will genuinely help out (not sit demanding cups of tea be brought to them)

Tip - first poo after deliver press a maternity pad to your stitches as you go - will definitely make you feel safer!

Most useful thing - a sheepskin from John Lewis. Baby sleeps on it all the time, has it in the pram and in his crib. Lovely and warm and familiar.

Most useless thing - swaddling wraps because he hated them.

Getoutof my gumboot......... I mean hippy chick hip seat! It is across between a bumbag and I back support belt I suppose, it's a big wide belt you wear round your hips with a perch for the clingy baby to sit on whilst you carry them so you can walk or stand in a natural position instead of stickin out your hip.
I suffer with a bad back so this has really helped and all sorts of people ask about it! Maybe because its a bit odd!,

My sheepskin from gabe and grace was also fantastic buy and superb quality

Isofix car seat with base.

Body pillow, mine was from Costco.

If you get piles, use ice to reduce them as the cream was useless.

Waste of money was nappy buckets, just as easy to use carrier bags.

Good =

-Angel care baby monitor and mat
-A baby bath support

• Gro bags (but cant use them till baby is a certain size/weight

-Burp cloths -Loads of bibs -A comfy playmat for lying baby on floor

Newborn tip: The birth hormones cause babies genitals to swell. I thought my new son was "gifted"

Worst Buy: Plastic thingy to go in the bath to support baby. Pointless and never used.

Best Buy: Foodstuffs. You need loads of easy things: tins, snacky foods, biscuits.

Cd player - white noise is a must

Loads of different meds (just incase in the middle of the night)

Cotton wool

Tip - it took me a while to realise that if I got worked up DS would as well. He's now 22 months and still feeds off my moods. If I keep calm, he calms down quicker. Also, try to self settle ASAP. I have 5 yo nephews who still seem to need my SIL to settle to sleep. My inlaws seem stunned that DS doesn't need this....
Good buy - ergo sling, belonging to a toy library so we can try baby equipment and toys before we buy them,
Waste - soft toys, breast pads, cotton wool for changing nappies.

Self settling is different than leaving a baby to cry to sleep though. Don't leave baby to cry to sleep.

If you want to introduce self settling, 8 weeks ish is prob a good age to start. Before that they sleep a fair bit and are usually asleep after a feed.

It may sound like you need loads of things for baby now reading this thread. But all babies are different. So what worked for me and my babies may not for you and yours.

Good luck with whatever you choose and enjoy the final weeks of being just you.

Tip, take lots of snacks and drinks in your hospital bags. They fed me in the hospital but not my OH! I was also recommended taking arnica tablets near your due date as they help with healing, all health food shops sell them.
Also our midwife told us that sometimes newborn girls can have a mini period, OH freaked out when changing her nappy,but luckily it looked exactly like the picture they showed us!

Best thing was a sling then a baby carrier and Shaun the sheep lullaby soother.

Worst was the travel buggy system. We are selling ours at the moment and I could cry about how much money we wasted on it.

Baby tip: Ditch any baby group that becomes too anxious or competitive. You don't need that. The best Mum friends have kids a year or too older than yours. They've been where you are and got through it.

Dash-very true.

You are all wonderful! Thank you. There's some fab tips here plus lots of pluses for some of things we've bought (thank goodness) and its nice to just have it emphasised that all babies are different and that's ok & it's just a bit of suck it & see!

I stumbled across this thread to read as I'm newly pregnant with my second, but have forgotten a lot since my nearly 13yo was a baby!

However, dash's comment resonates with me a lot. The biggest tip I have for new mums is simply to not let the guilt in. You have to find your own way with your children. You will always find something to feel guilty about (working, not working, what you feed them, what you don't feed them ... It's endless).

Just remember that you're doing your best. The guilt will eat you up!

If you have a c-section (especially emergency) you'll likely to leave hospital with lots of sticky black marks from various sticking plasters that they put all over you - over cannulas, the c-section wound etc. Nail polish remover is very good for getting these off.

If you're breastfeeding, drink plenty of fluid. Have a pint glass of water next to you.

Best buys so far - cot top changer - great if you're not bending, lifting etc. Moby wrap for carrying baby hands free. Scratch mitts. Finally and very specifically for me - get Spotify for your iphone and a Bose wireless bluetooth speaker that links with your phone. Looking after a newborn can be quite mundane so it's nice to have something to listen to.

Worst buy - not bought by me, but lots of people have given shoes as baby gifts